Feminist Intervention in News Distribution

• Type of event: Seminar
• Organisation: Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences
• Funding period: 01.04.2023 to 31.03.2024
• Short title: FemIntervention

Extract from the funding application: "As part of the seminar, students deal with critical perspectives that can result from an intersectional feminist attitude, for example, in order to analyse these data practices and develop their own in-depth questions and approaches to solutions."

Orientation of the seminar

This interdisciplinary seminar in the Studium Generale focusses on the connection between data and power. To this end, the Bachelor students worked together to develop feminist interventions in algorithmic news distribution. They gain insights into research and development processes and reflect on the data practices of news distribution. In the first section of the course, participants learnt about a feminist perspective on data practices with "Data Feminism" (D'Ignazio and Klein). Building on this, they were able to develop their own questions and intersectional, feminist solutions. The students could choose whether to develop an interview guideline to collect activists' wishes for interventions in news distribution or whether to design a prototype for news distribution that follows feminist principles.

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Review and results

The key outcomes of the teaching project "Feminist Interventions in News Distribution" show that students gained a deep understanding of the links between data and power and how data interpretation influences news distribution. They developed critical perspectives based on democratic and feminist principles and implemented these in the design of either an interview guide or a news recommendation system.

The teaching methods, such as interdisciplinary co-teaching and the use of digital technologies, effectively supported the learning process. The combination of lecturer input and student group work promoted a varied and enriching transfer of knowledge. Hybrid programmes enabled flexible teaching and took into account the different needs of the students.

The students improved their data skills and expanded them with feminist theories. They learnt to critically reflect on data and understand its influence on power structures and social dynamics. They also acquired technical skills and a deeper understanding of the social and political dimensions of data. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and practical exercises, such as empirical research and prototyping, they gained valuable skills for their academic, professional and personal lives.

Tips from lecturers for lecturers

As part of the teaching project, the didactic methods that were tested in the first round of the teaching lab were further developed. In particular, new didactic exercises were successfully trialled. For example, the "brainwriting" method 6-3-5 was used. In contrast to verbal brainstorming, students write down their ideas using a collaborative approach. A specific time and a fixed process are prescribed. The method was rated particularly positively by students and enabled them to generate ideas in a creative and structured way. The use of such innovative methods has increased the interactivity and effectiveness of teaching and made the learning process even more engaging for students.

Persons involved

Laura Laugwitz, M. Sc.

Communication Science, esp. Digital Journalism and Office for Digital Teaching, WiSo

Focal points:

• Automated recommendations of messages on different platforms
• Hate speech in digital communication
• Interdisciplinary further development of methods for computational communication studies
• Feminist perspectives in and on computer science and communication studies

Contact

Nadja Schaetz, M.A.

Journalism and Communication Studies, in particular Digital Journalism

Focal points:

• Datafication and artificial intelligence
• Power asymmetries in journalism
• Critical Data Studies

Contact